U.S. Government Removing EV Chargers From All Federal Buildings Because They Are “Not Mission Critical”

As part of its continued efforts to own the libs, or get rid of anything President Trump does not like or understand, the General Services Administration is moving to remove electric chargers from all federal properties nationwide. The agency says the hundreds of chargers and estimated 8,000 plugs available for federal workers to charge their cars are “not mission critical.” The agency, which manages buildings owned by the federal government as well as vehicles, will also offload any EVs purchased under the Biden administration.

The move, while malicious, is not surprising considering the GOP’s general disdain for electric vehicles and the green energy movement, or wiping just about anything enacted by the prior administration. President Trump has railed against EV mandates and is fighting to override California’s heightened emissions standards and requirement that all cars sold in the state be electric by 2035.

President Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act included significant funding to help supercharge the clean energy transition, including money for public chargers across the country and, importantly here, $975 million for the GSA to upgrade federal buildings across the country with “emerging and sustainable technologies.” But that is all out the window now, despite the fact that President Trump’s right-hand man, Elon Musk, runs a $1 trillion dollar electric car company. “Runs” might be a stretch, however, as Musk seems to be focused on his government job these days, power tripping and ignoring his family pleas on his own social media app, X. And he does not seem to care much about selling cars anymore, either. Tesla is now an AI robotics company, or will be.

“As GSA has worked to align with the current administration, we have received direction that all GSA owned charging stations are not mission critical,” reads an email from the GSA viewed by The Verge. The official guidance directs federal workers to begin shutting off chargers, though the GSA needs to cancel network contracts first. Once that is complete, chargers will be taken out of service and “turned off at the breaker,” seemingly noted in the email to emphasize just how much they want the chargers gone.

Musk, being in charge of President Trump’s DOGE cost-cutting effort, seems likely behind the effort. That would seem counterintuitive—Musk made his name building an electric car company that he once said would help move the world to a green future. Anything that supported that mission, including the success of competing car companies, was welcome, according to him.

But we are long departed from those days. Musk today is in favor of getting rid of EV subsidies and tax credits, even as China eats America’s lunch in electrification and is spreading its cars around the world. Some have speculated that because Tesla is already profitable on a per-car basis, his company would fare better than competitors who still can use any support they can get to scale. In a similar vein, perhaps Musk is fine with getting rid of chargers because it would help keep Tesla’s Supercharger network front-and-center. Coincidentally, the Trump administration early this month paused $3 billion in funding earmarked for public chargers.

If we are being charitable, there is one case to be made for getting rid of chargers on government property, which is that reporting has suggested they are not very good. Reports have circulated around the web claiming many of the chargers located at federal buildings are of the slower Level 2 variant, and utilize CHAdeMO or similar defunct charging plugs. Getting rid of them might make some sense if they were not being used, or were frequently broken.

Well, another reason to get rid of them would be the fact that Musk and President Trump are trying to fire federal workers in droves, so they will not have as many people around soon anyway. Still, it would be nice to actually see real functional charging equipment on federal property, but it does not seem likely they will be coming back soon.